Australian gay couple marry in NZ as same-sex marriage comes into force

Updated
Mon 19 Aug 2013, 12:06 PM AEST

Photo

Cheers: Paul McCarthy (left) and Trent Kandler were married in Wellington.

Getty Images: Hagen Hopkins

Two Australian men were among the first gay couples to marry in New Zealand this morning as same-sex marriage came into force.

Officials say 31 same-sex couples plan to tie the knot today, following the passing of gay marriage laws by the country's parliament in April.

New Zealand is the first Asia-Pacific country and only the 14th in the world to legalise gay marriage.

NSW couple Paul McCarthy and Trent Kandler, who were married in a ceremony in Wellington this morning, had beaten 300 other couples in a competition to be among the first to wed, despite their marriage not being legally recognised in Australia.

Mr McCarthy said yesterday it was "both historically significant and an important step in our personal lives".

American actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, from the hit comedy Modern Family, was a guest of honour when Air New Zealand hosted a same-sex marriage on a flight from Auckland to Queenstown this morning.

About 1,000 same-sex couples in Australia have indicated they plan to travel to New Zealand to marry, according to the Australian Marriage Equality lobby group.

There has also been overseas interest from Russia, the United States, Hong Kong, Britain, Singapore, Malaysia, Guyana and Belgium.

The convenor of New Zealand's Campaign for Marriage Equality, Conrad Reyners, says it is an important day.

"What's important here is that today's the day that finally same-sex partners in New Zealand can get married to their partners under the law and that a historic unfairness in the law has been removed," he said.